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Thursday, 13 November 2008

Immigration Tips for Peru

Updated 29 April 2014

One tip to remember is that speaking Spanish will help you greatly.
You'll be treated differently than if you speak English all the time,
it'll help you assimilate to Peru, and it'll make talking to the immigration officers easier. If
you're looking to learn Spanish, check out Fluenz Spanish, Rosetta Stone, and Synergy Spanish.

***Be sure you ask at Immigrations about your visa as rules and fees seem to change often.***

About Immigration

Migraciones is in charge of all the visas, resident permits and naturalisation done in Peru. Here's a list of offices in Lima. The main immigration office is located in Brena in Lima. However, there are other smaller immigration offices around Peru. Some of them are very small and can only do little things, such as help you get a replacement TAM. Others are bigger and will even allow you to get your CE there, outside of Lima. If you live outside of Lima, check with your closest immigration office and see what they can do.

The main office in Brena isn't one of the very nice districts in Lima. However, the area around Immigrations is safe. The worst thing that you'll have to deal with is people shouting "copies 20 cents". The address is Av. España 730. Maps can be found at Guia Calles. They open at 8am and close at 1pm.
You now need an appointment in order to go to immigration. Make the "derecho de
tramite" payment in order to schedule your appointment right away.Their phone number is 4176900. Here are some useful links.

Forms
They are available online at Migraciones or at the immigration offices. The forms are free. You'll have to pay the fee to file the form (or a fee to be exempt from the fee. . . yes, it's idiotics, I know. Go figure: nothing is free in Peru.) at the Banco de la Nacion.

Immigration Tips

Don’t go to the Banco de la Nacion in Immigrations. There's usually a long line. Instead go to another one near your house. Also, don’t go to the Banco de la Nacion on days near the 15th or the 30th, these are pay days and the lines are super long.

Make an appointment online. You'll have to use the Migraciones website.

Make copies. Make sure you have photocopies of all your documents, front and back. They will stamp your copies and keep the orginals. You'll have to show either a passport or CE to get in.

Go early. Go to Immigrations early in the morning when it first opens (8am) and there are less people in line.

Bring something to do. A book to read, music to listen to, anything to keep you occupied as you might be there for a few hours.

Be nice to the people who work there. Happy government workers are more likely to help you than unhappy or angry ones.

Go to the Mesa de Partes first. When you're walking towards Immigrations, you'll see that the Peruvians go to the right, you go to the side door on the left. You'll have to show either a passport or CE to get in. If you have bags, they'll make you open them so they can check them. Simple things, like renewing your CE, take about 2 working days. More complicated things, like when you get your visa for the first time, can take a couple weeks to a couple months. When you come back, go to the third floor. All foreigners do their paperwork on the third floor.

Get a tramidator. If you don’t want to go through all of this paperwork, get a tramitador to do the work for you. The following have been recommended by expats.

Marcos Saman 97360078

Juan Salas 9984-6714

Adelfio Alcalde Auerzola 2249739 or 2262412

Jorge Huaranga 4718617

Marcelino Ibarra 3360572

Edgar Ramos 948901404

Smile. Remember it’s not too bad; if you think that it’s difficult for you, look at the line to get Peruvian passports.

12 comments:

Just a tip: if you know any Peruvians you can trust, give them a power of attorney and pay them a proportionate fee to act as your tramitador. I tried one of the above tramitadores and he quoted $280.00. I can only imagine they are used to charging expats who don't know any better but I guesstimated that a tramitador charging those fees working full time could earn over $5000 a month, which for unskilled admin is exorbitant to say the least.

Thank you so much for all the info on your site. I have read through all of the various ways a person immigrates to Peru, and I am unsure under which category I would fall. I also have a few specific concerns:

1. I am a writer, so I can live anywhere I want to, as long as I have internet access. So how do I fill out proof of income when I have no employer? I suppose you could say I am self-employed but how would that go over on bureaucratic redtape?

2. I have minor children whom I homeschool. Is Peru friendly to homeschoolers?

3. Can foreigners buy houses? We are a large family and a small apartment would not accomdate our needs!

Hi,1. I-m not sure why you need proof of income. That-s for those married to Peruvians. The Peruvian has to show proof of income so that the foreigner can get a marriage visa. HOWEVER, if you live in Peru, after 6 months, legally, you would have to pay taxes to Peru. Check out SUNAT for more info.

As for visas. There-s no self employment one. Unless one of you is Peruvian, you-re probably going to have to get an investment visa, you invest 25K usd, or get a company to hire you and get a visa that way.

2. I don-t know any homeschoolers, but I-m sure you could find some on www.expatperu.com and www.livinginperu.com

3. Yes, you will either need to have Peruvian residency or will have to get a "permission to sign a contract" visa. It is pretty easy to get. Look here.http://theultimateperulist.blogspot.com/2008/11/2c-permission-to-sign-contract.html

I am Bawar Masih from Pakistan city Sialkot, I would like to visit Lima Peru, to meet my friend for business deal and to visit the culture and the places. As there is no embassy in Pakistan of Peru. Please reply me by the return mail, and the details so how can I apply for the Visa can I get the entry paper/visa.

Hi, I'm getting started on the marriage visa process (cambio de calidad migratoria) having just married a Peruvian. I ran into this site looking for tramitadores because I just discovered that you now need an appointment for Migraciones. I can't get one for a week and a half! Here I thought the old method of arriving at 7:30am would do the trick. I know this hasn't been updated for a while, but I figured I'd mention it to allow for the update. What I should've done is make the 'derecho de tramite' payment in order to schedule my appointment right away, instead of waiting for my husband's DNI saying 'casado' to come back first.

Hello, i Will be grateful if you can perhaps help me. My boyfriend and I are trying to get marry in Peru. I am a born Peruvian with American citizenship, and my boyfriend is from Pakistan. We do not live in Lima, but we're planing perhaps we could. Is it necessary for one of us to reside in the country to get married. I was born there, and my birth certificate is from LIMA, however my residence in is the states. Will I get married as a Peruvian or American? Thanks in advanced :)

Hi,Congrats! If you're planning on living in Peru then I would get married as a Peruvian. You'd need a DNI in order to do so. If you're planning on living in the USA then get married as an American. You don't need to have residency in order to get married in Peru. You do, however, need witnesses and they might be required to know you for X amount of time. Check with the municipality that you're planning on getting married in.

I've just tried calling each number in the tramidator list, And all are coming up as invalid numbers. I added the Peru country code +51 to the beginning. Any other suggestions or perhaps an updated list? What about email addresses?